New Maruti Celerio to Offer Automatic Transmission in India

Maruti Suzuki cars on display in a factory assembly line. Images of the new Celerio have not yet been released.

Suzuki Motor Corp. hopes to outpace its competition in India with the Celerio, a new small hatchback, which it plans to start selling next month.

The company’s local unit, Maruti Suzuki India has dominated the Indian car market for three decades on the strength of its stable of small cars. Now, it hopes to stay ahead of the competition by offering an automatic transmission on an entry-level vehicle.

Cars with automatic transmissions account for only around 1% of the 1.83 million passenger vehicles sold in India, but Maruti invested 5.7 billion rupees ($91.7 million) to develop the Celerio in the belief that Indians want an automatic car.

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One in every four potential customers who walk into Maruti showrooms inquire about cars with automatic transmissions, said Mayank Pareek, Maruti’s chief operating officer for marketing and sales. Most end up buying a car with manual transmission because they are cheaper, he said. Currently, Maruti’s only automatic transmission vehicles are the Ritz and A-Star hatchbacks.

The company Friday began taking customer orders for the Celerio. The vehicle’s price will be announced at the upcoming Auto Expo next month.

The Celerio’s gearbox, which the company calls EZ Drive, allows the driver to switch between automatic and manual mode, for drivers concerned about the comparatively poor gas mileage of automatics.

Maruti claims that both the versions would deliver similar mileage of about 23.1 kilometers to a liter of gasoline, and the maintenance cost would also be similar between manual and auto gear shift cars.

The introduction of the Celerio comes at a time when Indian car sales are shrinking. Maruti sales buck the broader industry trend and grew, barely, rising 1.7% on-year to 755,093 vehicles between April and December 2013. The company expects retail sales for the last quarter to follow the same trend, its chairman R. C. Bhargava said in December.

Maruti has a dominant 41% share of India’s passenger vehicle market, mainly because it sells seven, inexpensive small car models. Mr. Pareek wouldn’t say whether Maruti would phase out its A-Star or Estilo small car models if demands shifts toward the Celerio.

The Celerio will be offered in six variants, two with automatic transmissions. Some of the models will have features such as air bags, anti-lock braking system, audio systems with Bluetooth connectivity and alloy wheels.

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